An escort named Kate speaks about the harassment of a customer who threatened to expose her real name on social media, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013. (MICHAEL PEAKE/Toronto Sun)

Kate spends her days studying to be a doctor. At night, she plays doctor to pay for it.

But putting herself through medical school is financially tough — even for a high-end escort earning hundreds of dollars an hour.

So when a middle-aged man in another province cancelled a date, demanded his $1,500 deposit back and began extorting her for more cash, the 23-year-old wasn’t about to put up with it.

“It was frightening,” Kate, not her real name, told the Toronto Sun Monday. “But he pushed me too far.”

Tired of working two or three jobs to get by, she became an escort a few years ago and now earns more than enough to pay for her education.

Kate said she also has much more time to devote to her studies and to do volunteer work, which includes counselling sex trade workers who have endured horrific abuse.